Your Nutella is safe with me

July 8, 2025 by
 |  15 Comments  |  Leave Comment

Classic food pairings like apple and cinnamon, peanut butter and jelly, or tomato and basil work together for many reasons. Complex chemical compounds play off each other and cultural factors can also play a role in how we perceive certain combinations of flavors. For most people these couplings seem natural and elevate the separate components to exceed what each offer individually. However, there is always someone who does not agree with a particular combination. That is me when it comes to chocolate and hazelnut.

Closeup of a jar of chocolate hazelnut spread with two slices of artisan bread out of focus to the left.
Chocolate hazelnut spread by David Leibovitz

I adore all things chocolate, and I enjoy the flavor of hazelnuts. I will happily snack on either one, but when you put them together, count me out. If you give me a jar of Nutella for safekeeping, you will find it untouched when you return to retrieve it. It isn’t just that creamy spread that puts me off – I have tried other foods that pair these flavors and have always been let down. Give me a Linzer cookie with hazelnuts and raspberry jam or pair chocolate with just about any other nut and I will be delighted. Offer me a Ferrero-Rocher and I will pass. The combination just does not work for me.

While I am probably not alone in this opinion, it is not the mainstream consensus. Classics become such because they are popular with the masses. Perhaps this comes down to a particular biological issue as with soap-tasting cilantro haters. It could be because I did not experience this particular combination until later in life and never developed an affinity for it. There are weird combos that I have dragged with me from childhood like peanut butter and pickles, and I am not certain I would enjoy that pairing if I had not first tried it when I was young and impressionable. Whatever the reason for it, my dislike for hazelnut and chocolate together is not likely to change. Do any of you have classic combos that you find strange or off-putting?

Category: Antipasto

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15 Comments

  • rmpostonmfandt  on  July 8, 2025

    Oh, me too! However I love chocolate tahini spread. Now that is the good stuff!

    • Darcie  on  July 10, 2025

      I agree that chocolate and tahini go great together!

  • KatieK1  on  July 9, 2025

    I can’t stand bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches or stuffed peppers.

  • Rinshin  on  July 9, 2025

    I do not like nutella at all.

  • Rinshin  on  July 9, 2025

    Not sweet related, but I will not eat any gamey meat. First bite, and I have to discard in a tissue. It is repulsive to me.

  • TBipp  on  July 9, 2025

    So glad you posted this. I do not eat Nutella anything.

  • anya_sf  on  July 9, 2025

    I love croissants and I love chocolate, but I do not like chocolate croissants.

    Nutella is too sweet for my taste, but I like the Bonne Maman version.

  • Kinhawaii  on  July 9, 2025

    I didn’t like Nutella as a child but now I love it. Someone just gifted me the Bonne Maman version today so I’ll have to compare. I find passion fruit in baked goods sometimes off putting but in drinks or sauces I love it. I have tried repeatedly to like it but anything gamey, including goat cheese, I can’t stand. I’ve also tried to like tahini in desserts but I just don’t like it- only in savory food.

  • Indio32  on  July 10, 2025

    Is it Nut-tella OR Noo-Tella?

    Wondering if your aversion is to Nutella or the basic combination of hazelnuts & chocolate? I love the former but Nutella is (I find) horrible probably because of the palm oil, fake vanilla, emulsifier and buckets of sugar.

    • Darcie  on  July 10, 2025

      It is the combination of flavors – I have tried other foods with both hazelnuts and chocolate and did not care for any of them.

  • Lambsears  on  July 10, 2025

    Chilli and chocolate is a big no for me.😎

  • averythingcooks  on  July 11, 2025

    I never ate Nutella as a child and the idea of anything “chocolatey” on toast is….weird and I agree re: a hard no on the chocolate/croissant combo. BUT it’s a big YES for this highly controversial combo: ham & pineapple on pizza!

  • SenseiHeidi  on  July 12, 2025

    Anything jasmine. Smells and tastes like soap. Love cilantro, do not have those genes.

  • robinswood  on  July 24, 2025

    I don’t like orange and chocolate together, and am picky in general about orange in baked goods. But I love it in savory dishes.

  • Nancith  on  July 29, 2025

    NO to Nutella; hazelnuts are probably my least favorite nuts. But I do like Frangelico, oddly enough!

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